Interview with Dr Trevor Mudge, AMA Vice-President, 'The World Today' ABC Radio 2BL - Discussion on the report on research suggesting that more errors and accidents happen in hospitals on Wednesdays than other days of the week

New research suggests that Wednesday is a black day for hospitals. A report by the Medical Errors Action Group has found more people suffer accidents or incorrect treatment on Wednesday than on any other day.

The report has baffled the medical profession, with no-one able to offer an explanation.

Rebecca Barrett reports:

REBECCA BARRETT: Mondays and Fridays are meant to be the worst days of the week when it comes to productivity and mistakes. But now it seems that Wednesdays have their own problems too. A new report shows that today is not a good day to go to hospital, as you are more likely to die as a result of a medical error.

The study, compiled by the Medical Errors Action Group, offers no explanation as to why Wednesday is such a bad day.

The medical profession doesn't know either.

Jill Iliffe is the secretary of the Australian Nursing Federation.

JILL ILIFFE: If I'd had to ask myself that question or if somebody had asked me that question, I would have said Monday because it's the day you start winding up after the weekend. And I wouldn't have thought Wednesdays. It's a real puzzle, because talking amongst nurses, that's not the experience they report either.

REBECCA BARRETT: Dr Trevor Mudge, the Vice-President of the Australian Medical Association, is also scratching to find an explanation. He says operating schedules are not necessarily any heavier mid-week.

TREVOR MUDGE: There's nothing that distinguishes Wednesday from any other day. I guess if you were to take a guess at it, you'd think that weekends would be worse, when wards are often closed and there are staff cuts, and there's no elective surgery often, so that the people in hospital are probably sicker than on any other day.

REBECCA BARRETT: But the report suggests that weekends are probably the safest time to go to hospital or seek medical treatment.

The Medical Errors Action Group has passed on its report to the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care. Council chairman Bruce Baraclough says at the moment there's no way of checking whether the figures are right.

BRUCE BARACLOUGH: We don't have good systems in place across the nation at the moment. There are a number of systems that are being trialed in terms of looking at adverse events and recording them and then looking into them, in other words investigating the problem and working out what needs to be done to address the problem. But those are still in their pilot phases.

REBECCA BARRETT: The only other major study into adverse events in hospitals was released in 1995. But it offers no clues as to why Wednesday is such a bad day for medical errors.

Dr Ross Wilson, who chairs the New South Wales Council for Quality in Health Care, co-authored the 1995 study.

ROSS WILSON: There's a little bit of work from elsewhere in the world that suggests that certain times of the year might be worse, particularly at the beginning of a new rotation of resident medical staff. But that evidence is not very good. But from the Australian data point of view, we're not aware of any evidence why Wednesday might be worse than any other day for patients as far as the health system is concerned.

REBECCA BARRETT: Bruce Baraclough says the Australian Council for Safety for Quality in Health Care is currently working on setting up a national register for monitoring adverse events.

BRUCE BARACLOUGH: Well, there will be a reporting process at the level of health care facilities, and there will be a method of both recording incidents and reviewing incidents so that we can look and see what potential changes we can make to the system in order to avoid those incidents being repeated in the future.

REBECCA BARRETT: How far away is such a system?

BRUCE BARACLOUGH: Well, I think that before the end of the year it will be in place in some states, and within a year or two we will have reliable data that we can start to talk about in a meaningful way.

REBECCA BARRETT: So in a year's time we may in fact be able to determine whether or not Wednesday is a bad day?

BRUCE BARACLOUGH: Yes. But that's unlikely to be the most important information coming out of it. But yes, one would hope that we would know about that.

CO-COMPERE: Bruce Baraclough is the chairman of the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care.

End